Abstract
Nationalism was not a monolith and there were various dimensions. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries not only witnessed the growth and consolidation of nationalism in India, this period also saw the beginning and strengthening of communal and caste sentiments. It is argued that among various forms of nationalism that emerged from the 1870s onwards, Hindu nationalism was constructed as an ideology by upper-caste Hindus as a response to the perceived threat to Hindu tradition and values. Amidst the changes that were taking place in the mental world of Indians in the nineteenth century as a result of the British rule and the coming of western ideas, there was a vocal section within the Indian Hindu intelligentsia who were concerned to protect honour and glory of the Hindus. This thinking was very much reflected in a section of the vernacular literature of the period. Caste and community pride on many occasions was given centre-stage in articulating the visions of the past. Moving away from the dominant nationalist trend in analysing the development of Indian nationalism, the book under review claims to explore the role of ‘Hindi intelligentsia’ in supporting and popularising nationalism. Making this study different from the existing works on this subject, the author writes, ‘This book attempts to go beyond this general understanding about how communalism came into existence and developed in the Hindi-speaking regions of the colonial period. How far did the Hindi intelligentsia construct this? Was it interwoven with the emerging ideology of nationalism from the early days or was it a false ideology constructed and strengthened by the traditional Hindu sections of nationalists?’ (pp. 13–14).
Being situated between two important cities, Calcutta and Banaras—known as centres of learning and culture—Bihar is important to understand the mental world of the Hindi intelligentsia and their role in shaping identities of nation, community and caste. It is important to note that this book focuses on Bihar which, being part of the Bengal presidency till 1912, was very much influenced by the developments in the mental world of Bengal in the nineteenth century. In the introduction of the book, giving references to major research studies on nationalism and communalism and various perspectives in these studies, Hitendra Patel outlines the objectives of this study. His focus is on explaining communal perspectives in the ideologies of the intelligentsia, how the ideologies of nationalism and communalism lived together and the variations within communal writings. To understand these developments he has analysed two important movements, the Hindi Movement and the Cow Protection Movement, which took place in Bihar in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book has six chapters besides an introduction and conclusion. The first chapter traces the rise and growth of the intelligentsia in Bihar. ‘Hindi intelligentsia’ is referred to as a ‘closely-knit group of intellectuals and scholars’ who were educated people. In Bihar the number of educated people was quite substantial in spite of limited avenues for education within Bihar. The society and economy of Bihar witnessed significant changes after the revolt of 1857 and this had a bearing on the people’s attitude towards the government. The upper caste being affected economically and, with the rise of caste associations, feeling threatened, were drawn closer to the emerging voice of nationalism. The introduction of English education, contacts with Bengal, formations of various associations in Bihar, the Arya Samaj and other Hindu organisations spreading its activities in Bihar are seen as major influences in shaping the intelligentsia in Bihar. The new intelligentsia which was emerging confronted new changes and competitions and this in turn gave birth to a new consciousness. This new consciousness further consolidated around the ideals of a new ‘Hindu’ nation. The second chapter talks about the role of the intelligentsia in anti-Bengali and pro-Nagari Hindi movement. The domination of Bengalis in education and employment in Bihar was used by the government to encourage the Bihari intelligentsia who nurtured anti-Bengali sentiments because of their limited educational and job opportunities. Patel writes, ‘Most educated Biharis had this attitude towards Bengalis right up to 1905–6, and it was prevalent even among young Bihari students in Calcutta. Students like Rajendra Prasad were pained to see that Bihar remained a backward part of Bengal’ (p. 60). This attitude of the intelligentsia against the Bengalis had contributed to the movement for separation from Bengal. The Hindi movement demanding introduction of Hindi as the language of the courts and schools started in the 1860s in Banaras. This is seen as an attempt of the North Indian Brahmin elite who felt threatened by the power of the Muslim upper classes and the Kayasths. Hindi Pradip, a Hindu newspaper, quoted by Patel shows the criticism of Kayasths by the intelligentsia. ‘The Kayasths are against the introduction of Hindi, as they do not want to lose the opportunity of exploiting their own countrymen. They are the biggest obstacles to the cause of Hindi in the province of Bihar’ (p. 84). Hindi was introduced in Bihar in 1880 and the movement brought the Hindi intelligentsia in Bihar together. The movement for Hindi got identified with the ‘Hindu’ community. Patel writes, ‘What is most important is that the course of the movement gave a communal tilt to the ideology of the Hindi intelligentsia, which later crystallised and remained as strong ideological elements throughout the course of the period of our study’ (p. 65). The movement in support of Hindi soon turned into Urdu-bashing.
The chapter entitled ‘The Hindi Press and the Creation of Communal Stereotypes’ explains the growth of the Hindi Press in Bihar, although compared to Bengal the growth was very slow. Through historical novels, either newly written or translated from Bengali, an attempt was made to promote the Hindu version of history. Based on writings in the local newspaper, Bihar Bandhu, Patel observes that Bihar Bandhu questioned the domination of Muslims in Bihar when the Muslims were no longer the ruling class. There are a large number of examples cited by Patel from the Hindi press where in Hindus were glorified in the narratives and Muslims were portrayed in a negative way. Thus Hindi became synonymous with Hindu and Hindusthan (Pratap Narayan Mishra created the slogan, ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan’, p. 123). The next chapter further elaborates the linkage between the growth of the vernacular press and the making of the Hindu nationalist mindset. The community perspective was the predominant phenomenon of Hindi journalism in Bihar from the beginning. The difference was blurred between ‘Hindu jagaran (awakening) and desh-jagaran’ (p. 147). School textbooks were used to preach the heroic deeds of the Rajputs and the cruelty of the Muslims. The focus of Chapter 5 is on the development of vernacular politics and the attitude of the intelligentsia towards the questions of community, nation and caste. Analysing the vernacular politics of Bihar between the 1870s and 1917 Patel emphasises that ‘in this phase the caste (jati), national (jatiya) and dharma (jatiya dharma) loyalties were not considered contradictory’ (p. 157). Patel says that in the 1920s in Bihar it was very common for a Congress leader to participate in the activities of Hindu organisations. In Chapter 6, Patel elaborates on the making of the cow a sacred symbol of Hindu nationalism and how the Cow Protection Movement contributed in flaring up communal passion in Bihar. Commenting on the role of the intelligentsia in this development Patel writes that ‘Any number of examples can be cited in the writing of the intelligentsia of Bihar and the United Provinces to show that cow protection figured prominently in their ideology’ (p. 214). The book concludes by saying that the intelligentsia in Bihar developed as a powerful social group in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the process of creating a new social order it is argued that the intelligentsia ‘developed the ideologies which could be discerned as nationalism and communalism’ (p. 227). The intelligentsia not only projected the cause of Hindu nationalism but they also strongly advocated Varnashram dharma and the caste system.
The arguments of Patel in this book in analysing the role of the intelligentsia may have some similarities with some earlier works by Vinita Damodaran and Vasudha Dalmia but the way Patel has used the rich collection of vernacular literature and all major secondary works on the subject to meticulously analyse the role of the intelligentsia in Bihar in shaping ideologies of caste, community and nationhood definitely would add to our knowledge of politics and society in colonial Bihar. This book would, in a way, encourage readers to further explore the multilayered facets of social and political developments in colonial Bihar and the importance of vernacular literature in understanding the developments. However in spite of Patel’s clarification in the beginning that this book deals with Hindu communalism, one feels the absence of Muslim voices when the Hindu intelligentsia was engaged in constructing the nation exclusively for Hindus. More striking is the brief reference on caste without mentioning much about the activities of, particularly, the lower and intermediary castes. Therefore the reference to caste in the title of the book is a little confusing. It might not have been totally out of place here to point out that when the entire focus was on the growth of Hindi language we do not get to know what was happening with Magahi, Bhojpuri and Maithili, the three main regional languages of Bihar, in the period under study.